Korean Job Discussion Forums

[mack4289]

education per year. Sorry, not as interesting as you probably thought it would be.

http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2879587

"A slew of sex crimes committed by teens in recent years has raised public awareness and anxiety about the quality of sex education provided by schools. Five months ago a case in Gapyeong, Gyeonggi shocked the entire country when police revealed that six middle school students had repeatedly raped a 14-year-old female classmate over a period of two months.

Adding to the public�s dismay was the fact the boys showed little remorse and did not seem to understand the severity of their crimes. One boy claimed that he merely wanted to copy scenes from a pornographic film he�d seen on the Internet.

In other words, many kids are now getting their sex education from triple-X porn sites rather than their parents, peers or teachers.

..... According to National Police Agency data, one fourth of sex crimes involving teenage victims are perpetrated by teenagers and 13 percent of them involve preteen assailants. These numbers are much higher than in Japan and the United States, both countries that already have standardized sex education programs in their elementary, middle and high schools. According to statistics compiled by law enforcement agencies in the three countries, six out of100,000 teenagers in the United States committed rape in 2005. In Japan the figure was 1.1 out of 100,000 and in Korea it was 11.5. Korea�s incidence of teen rape is almost double that of the U.S and ten times that of Japan.

.... The Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development currently mandates 10 hours of sex education a year for every grade from elementary through high school. In reality, the ministry admits that in just under half of the 10,063 schools they surveyed these sessions are conducted for less than eight-hours.

.... In Japan, the required minimum of sex education is 70 hours per year; sex education is a separate subject. The United States has �health� classes, which include sex education, and these have been set apart as an independent subject since the start of the 20th century."

Surprised they didn't put this statistic in there:

http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2879198

"But despite the legal barriers, more women per capita have abortions in Korean [sic] than in the United States, where the procedure is legal. On average, 29.8 women out of 1,000 aged 15 to 44 years old have an abortion in a given year. The figure is 21.1 in the United States and 17.8 in the United Kingdom."

Then there is the lighter side of the lack of sex ed: I have friends who were with Korean girls who were surprised to find out guys have two balls and didn't know what happened when guys come. Apparently those girls hadn't been watching enough porn.

[Unposter]

My first thought was similar Mack...its got to be the porn. It is hard to believe that the Korean teanage rape rate is ten times greater than Japan's. It has got to be the porn. Instead of sex ed, Koreans should develop their porn industry more. Who knows? It could help.

[huck]

A 12-year old student asked me yesterday if a girl can get pregnant from kissing....

I said, "Yes!!! Don't kiss anyone until you're married!"


I try to watch out for my kids.



disclaimer: The student REALLY did ask me that question...

[Scotticus]

Wow, I must say I found that quite surprising. I mean, I never believed the people who talk about how perfect and peaceful Korea is. It's pretty obvious things go on here, they're just hidden better. However I'm astounded that they have a rate almost double America's and ten times that of Japan. I mean, that's a country that has a massive problem with girls getting groped on the subway, and yet the rape rate, at least among teens, is that low?

Anyway, more on topic: I totally agree with what the article stated. While discussing the merits of sex education in my high school class, I was asking how they learn about sex if their sex ed is lacking (which they were very emphatic that it is). Of course we had normal answers, like friends, family, etc. Then the internet comes up. In my head I'm thinking they mean reading websites that have info about STD's, etc. Eventually I get that they mean porn. Only in Korea will a class full of teenage girls openly admit watching porn to their young, male teacher.

[PeterDragon]

I think the biggest problem here is that rape is profundly ignored. When it does happen, no one will talk about it or react to it, not even the cops. If rape is an open wound on society, then the koreans are ignoring said open wound until it becomes gangrenous.

I motion mandatory weekly viewing of Law and Order: SVU for all Koreans.

[Zark]

[browneyedgirl]

[huck]

[Jeweltone]

Yes, some do miss the "sex-ed boat." It amazes me how inexperienced some (but certainly not all) of my university students appear to be.

One of my male students from my smaller and laid-back conversation class (dating unit) asked, "Teacher, have you ever been kissed before?" (giggle giggle - you know someone put him up to it).

I stopped, stared at him, and said "Of course. Haven't you?"

"No." And the poor guy blushed as the room erupted in giggles, back slaps, and guffaws.

He is not the first to admit this, sadly. The girls tend to be more naive, and I sometimes wonder exactly what they do know...

edit: typo

[VirginIslander]

Is there a relationship between sex education and rape? We're there more rapes cases in the 1950'per capita than today because fewer hours were spent discussing sex in school?


Does sex education prevent rape? How does learning the structure of a femals's internal sexual organs deter boys from raping girls?

Does one learn about rape in elementary school and early middle school?

Does knowledge of sex prevent students from raping?

Or, does the fear of being thrown in jail and being raped yourself deter rape?

[VirginIslander]

[Scotticus]

[JongnoGuru]

[indytrucks]

This comes as no surprise if you've ever seen what passes as porn on Catch On after 11pm.

[Jeweltone]

Virgin Islander - Has Korean society really changed that much?

I have been here two years and seen many social changes even in my short stay, but that university students (pre-military) can still giggle over kissing...and yet middle school boys stand accused of rape...Something is fishy here.

Is it just a new "generation gap"? Ten hours of "sex ed" is not enough, obviously. That implies a very limited content and context, among other things.

Just some observations from talking to the 30s crowd...

- A drunk ajussi in a bar admitted over the course of the evening, and many drinks later, that he didn't put two and two together until he accidentally got his girlfriend pregnant. They have now been married for four years.

- A friend dated a Korean man who learned about certain events in a teenage male's life from a medical encyclopedia.

- I listened to a detailed conversation in "mixed" company (American and Korean women in their mid to late 30s) about the birth of a mutual friend's baby. The unmarried Korean women were confused by the details; apparently the process of birth is not (or was not) taught in school. One woman said that she thought babies came "from your belly" (I'm not entirely sure whether she was speaking literally or euphemistically), but clearly didn't exactly know how it got out of there. Then the questions suddenly began to pour out, and an hour later, there were some (hopefully) newly-enlightened thirtysomethings. For the record, this group of women were from a conservative background, so that might have something to do with it.